Well, hey everybody, welcome to Stronger Weekly brought to you
by Purest Nutrition. I'm your host, Jesse Karrajad.
Thank you so much for being here and joining our monthly Ask Us
Anything episode. Justin Mazar as my Co host joins
the show to tackle some really cool questions such as I work
out all the time and don't look good naked.
What's up with that? What are the top 3 supplements
that you take for the rest of your life?
If you can only take 3? And I keep hearing about
meditation and mindfulness. Is this something you actually
do or just say you do? Plus four other great questions
that came from our audience of Shout out to our Awesome
audience. Before we dive into those
questions, let's hit our top health and fitness headlines of
the week. Let's dive in.
All right, let's jump in, starting with some pretty crappy
news here. Rectal cancer is surging in
people in their 30s and 40s. So a study set to be presented
at Digestive Disease Week in May analyzed CDC death records from
1999 through 2023, specifically tracking adults aged 20 to 44.
What they found is alarming. Rectal cancer mortality in
millennials is rising 2 to three times faster than other cancers
across other demographics, including even colon cancer.
So among adults aged 35 to 44, the rate is projected to keep
escalating through 2035. Colorectal cancer is already the
number one. That's number one cause of
cancer death in adults under 50 in the United States, surpassing
every other cancer in that age group.
So lead author Doctor Mithali Menopaeleol of Sunai Upstate
Medical Center puts it plainly, quote colorectal cancer is no
longer considered predominantly a disease of older adults.
Rectal cancer especially is becoming a growing problem in
younger individuals and we need to act early to reverse the
trend. So what's driving it?
Why is this happening? Glad you asked.
Scientists are still working on that.
Most of these cancers are not hereditary.
This is something modern, said Doctor Benjamin Schlechter of
Dana Farber. Leading suspects as far as the Y
goes include early life microbiome disruption.
So the junk food that we're putting in our systems and how
it's messing up our gut health, those are my words.
Ultra processed food consumption and possibly excess sugar
sweetened beverages and childhood.
The troubling part, many young patients present with 0
traditional risk factors. Folks, talk to your doctor, know
your history, and most importantly, be mindful of the
food that you're putting in your body.
Next up, Health Secretary RFK Junior wrapped up a grueling
week on Capitol Hill this past week. 7 congressional hearings
in seven days. The official topic was the White
House's proposed budget, but the real topic quickly kept coming
back to measles. And here's where things stand.
So the US is on pace to easily surpass 2025's measles case
count, which was already the highest in over 3 decades.
The national vaccination rate for measles has dropped from 95%
in 2019 to 92% in 2026. And that matters because 95% is
the threshold that experts say is needed to prevent wide
community spreads. America is at risk now of losing
its official measles elimination status, a designation it has
held since the year 2000. So Republican.
That's right. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy
of Louisiana, a physician who cast the deciding vote to
confirm Kennedy, told him directly that the gap in vaccine
trust, quote, has worsened during the past year due to
false statements about safety and efficacy.
In Kennedy's response, Quote, we have a global pandemic.
It has nothing to do with me And quote.
He also noted that the US has handled the outbreak better than
any other country in the world, a claim that drew push back from
public health officials that were present.
So the science on the MMR vaccine is not ambiguous. 2
doses driven protection. That's the take away.
Let's get with the program folks.
Next up, let's talk about coffee.
I need some coffee right now and good news for coffee drinkers
and it gets better if you're even drinking decaf.
So a new study from University College court published this
week in Nature Communications examined how habitual coffee
consumption affects the gut brain access, which is the
communication highway between your gut microbiome and your
brain. They studied 62 adults, all of
which were regular coffee drinkers, defined as three to
five cups per day, and non drinkers.
Tracking mood, cognition, stress levels and gut bacteria
throughout a washout period and reintroduction phase to
caffeine. Hopefully you're tracking the
results. When coffee was reintroduced,
both caffeinated and decaffeinated participants
reported lower stress, lower depression scores and reduced
impulsivity. The mood lift happened in both
groups, meaning the benefit it did not require caffeine.
Coffee appears. Coffee itself appears to shift
the gut microbiome, increasing specific bacteria involved in
bile acid synthesis and stomach acid regulation, while also
boosting thermosuits, a group of microbes associated with
positive emotion. So lead researcher Professor
John Kryon of APC Microbiome Ireland says, quote, coffee is
more than just caffeine. It's a complex dietary factor
that interacts with our gut microbes, our metabolism and
even our emotional well-being. Decaf drinkers got the mood
boost and improved learning and memory, while caffeinated
drinkers got the mood boost plus reduced anxiety and better
focus. Maybe drink both.
But it's clear here, coffee has some benefits, and it's not just
the caffeine aspect, it's the coffee itself.
So drink up, folks. All right, let's be honest,
you're. Probably not a professional
athlete with a personal chef and unlimited recovery time.
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Because your nutrition should work as hard as you do.
Next up, we covered chrono exercise last week, which is
this idea that working out at the right time for your
chronotype lowers cardiovascular risk.
This week, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh took
that science a step further with a different question.
Can your wearable device actually detect your chronotype
from your heart rate? And does that predict disease
risk? Stay with me.
The answer to both questions was yes.
So published in the Journal of Physiology, The PIT team analyze
wearable heart rate data from the NI HS All of Us cohort and
found that the 24 hour phase of your heart rate rhythm
accurately reflects your underlying genetic chronotype.
Using that measure, they then assess disease risk across more
than 3000 conditions and found 22 significant associations with
night owl heart rate patterns consistently linked to higher
risk of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions.
So in other words, there's the lark and the night owl, the
larks the morning one, the night owls, the night one.
This is saying that the night one puts you at more risk for
some pretty bad diseases. So mentor Doctor Neil Kelly was
direct about the take away quote.
There seems to be a clear benefit to being more of a
morning person if you have the ability to do that.
He noted that behaviors like waking earlier and exercising in
the morning can actually shift your circadian rhythm over time,
even if you are genetically wired as a night owl.
So the lead author of the study is just a high school junior, 17
years old. He wakes up at 4:30 AM for
rowing practice and decided to study whether that habit is
actually protecting his health. Spoiler, it sounds like it
definitely is. And what's encouraging is if you
don't identify as a morning person, this study says you can
train yourself to be one over time.
So get at it, set the alarm and get up and exercise, folks.
And your last headline this week?
I would just throw this one in the interesting category.
If you are a middle child or a younger child, well, you are not
going to like this. So a new economics study from
the University of Copenhagen analyzed decades of Danish data
and found a consistent 2% wage gap between the first born and
later born children in a family. And researchers believe they
have finally found the reason why.
It's not extra parental attention, It's not birth order
per SE. Childhood illness.
Younger siblings are two to three times more likely to
suffer from respiratory illnesses in early childhood.
Why is that? Largely because the first borns
pick up viruses at school, daycare or elsewhere and bring
them home for their younger siblings to enjoy.
So early childhood illness, the study found, diverts
developmental energy from the brain during a very critical
early growth window. Those cognitive gaps compound
overtime into measurable differences in academic
performance and lifetime earnings.
The finding echoes earlier work from the University of
Edinburgh, which found Firstborn's score higher on IQ
test and that the gap typically appears within the first year of
of life. So the practical implication if
there ever was 1. Early childhood health matters
more than we think, and protecting infants and toddlers
from repeated illness during their first years of life may
have significant consequences than in previous decades.
So wash hands, keep your kids, you know, away from each other
if they're sick. As a parent, it's hard to do,
but do your best if you've got multiples running around to keep
the youngins and the littlest ones protected away from the old
ones who could be dragging all these sicknesses in.
So interesting stuff there. That's it for our health and
Fitness headlines of the week. Now let's jump into the main
feature of this week's episode, our Ask Us Anything.
We'll see you over there. All right, Mr. Justin, welcome
back. Mr. Jesse, thanks for having me.
I'm always, always happy to have you.
How's that? How's that hammy healing up?
Well, you know, it's all different colors, not looking
the way it should in my opinion. But we're going to, we're going
to hope for the best and see what the next week or two bring
in terms of recovery and rehab. But we got ourselves a strain.
Hammy at the minimum. I was thinking about it.
We didn't talk, we texted. But did you?
Did you? Did you think that foam rolling
your leg was going to prevent a popped hamstring sprinting to
first base getting as you get close to 40 foam rolling that's.
What we're doing these days, Listen, I was, I'm not going to
say proactive because it was not proactive.
I foam rolled, stretch, did like mobility stuff for an hour
before the game. One day I did that thinking
that, hey, that will undo 15 years of abuse and shitty form
and all the other stuff that I put myself through.
But at spoiler alert it didn't. But I will say, I will say first
at bat was great. My wife and kids were there.
I had a home run right center. 4/20 was beautiful.
Second at bat hit a single and then it was running from first
to second at about 65%. That caused the old handy to go
goodbye. Did you actually like go like on
the way to 2nd and not make with the second and got tagged out?
I was. 5 feet from the bag and I'm running.
I'm so this is so much fun. Like I'm having fun playing a
sport again for the first time in years and I haven't gotten
her. Uh oh.
And it was like somebody took a bow and arrow and shot the back
of my leg. Dude.
You know that feeling when you pull something the like the pop?
Yes, I felt that. And within like 1/4 of a second
I said Oh no. And then my legs stopped working
and I almost fell directly on my face.
And then I got on the bag and I was like, all right, I'm fine.
And then the other team's second baseman was like, bro, I I saw
that you good. And I was like, I don't, I don't
know, man, I don't know. And then?
It comes in, it's like late onset pain when you pull those
things too. But it's all good, man.
I I'll be fine. Just gotta be smart and do the
things that we talked about, which is taking care of
yourself. Yeah, dude, I pulled my calf.
I was sitting, I was working and I was planning on starting to do
sprints and like, my work kept like dragging me back in and I
was getting irritated. So anyway, I went from sitting
in front of a computer to throwing on shorts and I was
sprinting within like 2 minutes. No warm up whatsoever.
Can't do it like I used to. And dude, my very first Sprint,
I went to like step off like my, my left leg was behind me and I
pushed off. And to your point, it felt
exactly like I got shot. I thought I got shot with a
paintball in my cap or maybe like a car was going by and it
hit a rock and the rock hit my calf.
And really I was like, what the fuck?
And like I turned and then within like 10 seconds of the
go, OK, this is different, but it's crazy.
So we got our ask us anything this week.
Once again, shout out to the listeners.
Amazing questions. We got a great variety.
We just had a little bonus conversation around proper
mobility that people getting near 40 can hopefully take that
seriously and we are going to dive right into it.
So our first question has to do with cold plunging, something
that I love and frankly I won't shut up about.
Marcus T out of Portland, OR asks.
Coldwell says cold plunges seem to be everywhere now, but I've
also heard they can blunt muscle growth if you do them right
after lifting. What is the actual science here,
and when should I do them, if I do them at all?
You want to go first? Me, you, I could.
Jump in just because this is something that I I read like
originally spent way too much time researching when I first
started cold plunging. There's science behind it that
you know supports that doing it post workout.
Will you inhibit muscle growth and repair to a degree yes.
What's cool about it, and this is where the the nerd in me
comes out is cold plunging and the effect it has on the body
interacts with the M Tor pathway.
It's called and that's basically what is a pathway that signals
growth, hypertrophy, nutrient partition, like all the good
stuff that you want post workout, right?
We want to refill everything that we just depleted.
And you would think I just killed myself in the gym.
I'm going to hop in the cold plunge and start my recovery
right now. I did that for many times at
first. Granted, do I think it totally
blunted any any enhancements to me physically You meant like
that totally negated the workout.
No, but I do think being smart about it and using it as a tool
to your advantage and not just hey, I see everybody doing this
on Instagram. I want to do it too.
Be smart about it. It sucks.
It's not fun at first. It's it hurts for the first
couple of seconds, but once you're you're in it, you learn a
lot more about yourself. And I feel like I was ready to
learn about myself with cold plunging, especially when it
comes to breathing and like self regulating and everything.
So the benefits to cold plunging far outweigh the sucks in my
opinion. Do we need to be smart about
timing? Yes I do, but do I think that
you know if the only time you can cold plunge is 2 hours post
workout, should you even do it? I am of the mentality of yes I
think you should still do it. There are far more benefits that
I have experienced, a notice from cold plunging that just
comes from overall recovery from you know a workout.
But the mental benefits, you know, the shock proteins,
everything that comes with it. So short answer, there is some
science that supports doing it, you know, pre workout or after
that 4 hour window post workout. But doing it at all is better
than not doing it at all. Amen.
Perfect. And I'll pick up from right
there. I Co plunge avidly right now.
I'm doing it three times a week, 4 minutes per session at about
49°. That's my sweet spot.
I think there's some science out there that I've read that says
some for some reason per week, about 11 minutes to 12 minutes
is around like the sweet spot to get most of the benefits.
What are the benefits? And I'll get to Marcus's
question here around when to do it, but what are the benefits?
There's research out there around fat loss.
There's something, and I can speak barely intelligently about
it, but there's something about cold exposure that triggers
activation of brown fat cells so that you can have, you can burn
more fat, have more thermogenesis throughout the
day. I found that another benefit
that I love and it's more anecdotal.
There's science to support it, but it's the mental health
benefits to it. I'm a busy guy and I have a
really hard time meditating and finding Pratt like mindfulness
practices. And dude, you know this, Justin,
but jumping in a cold tank for 4 minutes, that's a long time if
you haven't done it, everybody. It forces me to breathe, it
forces me to focus and it forces me to like actually just sit and
just kind of 0 in. And it feels really, really good
for me mentally. And I found doing it in the
morning is the sweet spot. I pulled some research for this
for this interview, but cold exposure increases norenephrine
in Fuck. How do you say that, dude?
Neuro Epinephrine. Neuro epinephrine, thank you by
200 to 300% why that's important.
You do that in the morning. It can be a natural energizing
lift instead of having to rely on things like caffeine that
gets you dehydrated and stuff. But to get to his question here
for Marcus, I think the study does show that there is it is a
problem to do it too close to your strength training session.
So ideally speaking, the science does say that you want at least
4 hours of separation from when you put down that last weight
from your resistance training to when you cold plunge.
So if your schedule does not allow you to do it in the
morning and then you're going to lift later in the day, look,
just do it. Just get it done.
But if you can, I would suggest do it in the morning.
And if you really want like an optimal protocol, do it in the
morning, Warm up, do some fasted cardio if you're trying to do
fat loss, and then do your day. And then maybe do your weight
training sessions later on in the afternoon.
Really get your strength training and don't let the cold
exposure impact the gains from your strength training.
But that's my, that's my answer for, for Marcus and a little, a
little factoid. A 2021 study in the Journal of
Applied Physiology found that cold water immersion within 4
hours post resistant training reduced muscle protein synthesis
by up to 18% and blunted hypertrophy adaptations over the
course of 12 weeks. So if you want to cite the
source, it's a 2021 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
There you go. Great journal.
That sounded smart, but then I can't say N.O.R.E and
epinephrine. See, you just did look at you.
This is growth mid episode Jess. This is awesome.
I'm a quick, he's a quick learner, guys, from a very quick
study. All right, this next one has to
do with protein. Taylor K from Nashville, TN.
I'm heading to Nashville next weekend.
By the way, shout out to Nashville from hockey.
Tag. Yes, Sir.
I've heard you guys talk about protein targets, but what about
on rest days? Should I still hit the same
number for protein consumption on rest days or can I should I
eat less since I'm not training? Justin, what say you?
Sure to answer. Nope, keep that protein target
exactly as it was the day like the day before when you trained
it's super. I mean, that's a great question
and one that I mean, and logistically you think would
make sense like, oh, I'm not training today, so I'm going to
lower my protein intake because I don't need all that fuel.
I don't agree with that at all. And that's actually a lot of
science to support our bodies don't just rebuild what we tear
down during the gym. The day of exercise, right?
There's 24 to 48 hours epoch, there's all of the post excess,
whatever that still happens up to two days after the after the
workout. So lowering our protein is only
going to do ourselves a recovery disservice if we are intent on
lowering our total calories on days that we're not lifting.
You can lower your carb sources or some of your fat sources if
you want to lower that caloric intake.
But in my opinion, depending on what your goals are, we
shouldn't be fluctuating overall protein intake by day depending
on what activity we are or aren't doing.
Yeah, I agree. And Justin do you let's.
So that's one of the three macros.
Let's look at carbs and fats. If he asked the same question
and said like should I have less carbs or fats on rest days, what
would you answer to that be? I mean, my quick answer, I mean,
everybody is different and everybody's body likes certain
macros more than others depending on what they're doing.
My first go to is always carbs in terms of what we can cut back
on. And I love carbohydrates.
I think they're incredibly important for everybody.
But there's a lot of timing that I've been learning over the
years to, to lean into with carbohydrates, you know, pre
post training. But on off days, what's the,
the, the saying you don't put gas in the car if you're just
putting it in the garage? No, not saying cut out every
carbohydrates doors, lower it by, you know, 25 to 50 grams on
on your off days and see how you feel, which is more important
than anything in my opinion. And two, see how that translates
into the gym that following week.
You know, not everything is going to be able to be measured
day of. So I would continue to, you
know, track things on a weekly basis and see how you're
feeling, But do not lower protein.
That is the one that I would always stress make protein every
meal be the first thing you reach for.
And then from there, carbohydrates and fats and you
will be doing your body and your macros a lot of services in my
opinion. Couldn't agree more.
Think of rest days not as rest days but growth and recovery
days. And protein is essential to
muscle repair. And I also couldn't agree more
that if you are going to vary some of those other macros,
carbohydrates is the 1. So for me, for me personally, I
found especially if I'm doing a body recomposition fancy talk
for like changing what my body fat, most times I'm cutting
down, trying to be lean. I found I can keep the same
protein intake year round. And then if I kind of cycle my
carb intake and align it with how active I am that day, that's
when I can really start to see like the fats loss.
So I would say get your ideal protein in however you want to
look at that. I think, I think it's pretty
easy to just say, you know, 1g of protein per pound of body
weight. It's a good starting point.
And then when you're thinking about reducing your caloric
intake to align with how active you are that day.
In other words, a rest day, I would drop the carbs off and
that's called carb timing for anybody that's in.
And just to back up what Justin and I are saying with a quick
study that we pulled for the episode of 2020, a 2018 study in
sports medicine sounds legit to me.
I just showed that protein intake consistency, consistency
matters more than workout day timing.
Subjects who maintained .7 to 1g per pound of body weight daily
was exactly what we said, including on rest days gain
significantly more lean mass than and those who vary their
intake. So the the proof is in the
pudding there. Anecdotally for both Justin and
I and for this study from sports medicine.
So keep your protein consistent seven days a week, and maybe
alter your carbs, assuming you're trying to do a little
recomb, losing body fat, whatever carb.
Cycling's fun too. It's kind of like an exciting
journey of like, well, I'm going to up my carbs on leg day, lower
it on like my arm day. And I don't know, that's where I
get excited about this stuff, making it more personal and
more, you know, unique to yourself and what works and what
doesn't for you as we all try and do this journey called life
together, Jess. It's like an experiment.
I like to run. But you know, it's interesting
even because you said that. I used to think, yeah, leg day
is a high carb day because leg day feels harder and it's harder
on your central nervous system. But what's interesting is when I
look at my exercise track or my whoop, the total calories burned
in a leg workout versus say like an upper body strength workout
is negligible. Like it's not that different.
I do you're an anomaly because that's that does not no, I will
show you mine and I'm like 400 calories higher on leg days and
a little bit higher on back days.
But I do think that's just workout style and the fact that
you have very intense interval training styles that would make
me shudder in fear. Yeah, well, I mean, I guess the
point I was driving towards is like, I found that the days that
I burn the most calories both within the workout and around
the clock is my higher cardio days.
Oh yeah. So I kind of switched my when I
carb cycle like I'm actually doing right now, I actually have
my hike, my higher because I don't have like a true high high
carb day. I don't have 400 grams a day,
but I eat more carbs when I like run more.
Like if I do like a, you know, a 30 minute jog followed by 15
minutes of a fart lick or sprints or something.
But to each his own. And back to the the principal
question here, keep your protein consistent.
Anyone listening and and mess around maybe with your
experiment with your carbs and fat.
I would leave fats consistent too.
I would too for non hormonal purposes.
Everything, yeah. Yeah, for sure.
OK, this is good. Ryan S from Phoenix, AZ.
He wants to look good naked. So here's his question.
I'm tired of looking like I lift with a shirt on but not with one
off. What's the missing piece, guys?
Diet, cardio, specific exercises?
Why can I move weight but still look soft?
I'd love to I'd love to get more information from this guy.
It's hard to it's hard to answer, but essentially Justin,
maybe I'm you're going to keep going first all up.
So by the way, what to do about lifting consistently but not
looking like you lift when you're naked?
In other words, the in my, in my opinion, the body fat percentage
is probably a little too elevated.
I don't know. But what do you think, man?
I wish my answer could be one thing and like I can, we could
be like, you know, Orion here, this you're going to look great
naked, buddy. But I think it's a mold.
There's a couple of things, honestly.
Like first and foremost, I want to know what Orion's workouts
look like and what the split is. But assuming Ryan is in the gym
three to five days a week and he has a relatively good split in
place, sounds like he already looks like he's lifting, which
is great. Good for you, Ryan.
And I know coming from somebody whose brain is probably hooked
up similarly to Ryan's, is that we are our own worst critics.
And I'm sure you look a lot better than you're giving
yourself credit for. But when it comes to I'm like
you look, I feel like I look great with this T-shirt on.
Like my shoulders look rounded. My arms look a little tight.
But like, as soon as it comes off, I want to run to the other.
I just want to get the away. My first and immediate go to is
always going to be diet, man. I always going to be diet.
You can have the best training split in the world.
You can be out training Rocky. You can look better than Jay
Cutler did back in his prime. You can do anything that you
want. But if you're going home and not
treating your body the same way you just treated in the gym by a
shit diet you, you're going to never be where you want to be.
And I'm speaking to Ryan, but I'm also speaking to myself
because I feel like it's so like I love the gym.
I love going to the gym. I love beating myself up in
there and having a great time and I feel accomplished.
I feel great. I feel mentally just everything
about it is awesome. But if I come home and I eat a
caramel ice cream cake instead of a protein shake and just
start drinking my problems the way like I'm never going to look
the way that I have in my brain that I'm going to look because
of the workout that I just did. To sum all this up in a short
answer, look at your diet because I guarantee you, Ryan,
you are a human being like Jesse and myself, and there are areas
that you can easily clean up a little bit.
But I think what we need to keep in mind with all this stuff is
making changes to diet, like be calculated with it.
Unfortunately, if you're not a calculated person right now, I
would change that habit in and of itself because that is going
to help you track this and get you to where you want to be.
But easily looking at the diet, doing some math, you're like,
all right, what areas is it before bed?
Am I eating a fuck ton of snacks before bed because I'm hungry?
Or am I not eating a breakfast during the day and then at
lunchtime I just want to eat anything?
Insight like look at those types of scenarios.
Take yourself through your day from morning to night.
I don't just do one day and do what?
What does a weekend look like too?
Because if you're training great and eating great five days out
of the week, but then the weekend comes and you're like
weekend warrior mode, let's go baby, and you're crushing a 30
pack and eating nothing but shit Monday morning, you're going to
look just like you did the week before when you weren't happy.
We need to hold ourselves more accountable here, I think, and
really do the things that you know you don't want to do
because those are usually the things that are going to get you
where you want to go quicker. In fear of not repeating
anything you already said, I guess I'll just add on to it
because I agree with everything you said.
We've got a body fat percentage situation here that that's my
assumption. You cannot out train a bad diet.
But I think we we all know that. Quick anecdote when I'm 195,
which wasn't that long ago, it was like 3 months ago.
If I take my shirt off, I don't look ripped up, cut up,
muscular, jacked, whatever you want to say.
And the interesting thing is when I lose 10 lbs, lose pounds,
I look bigger and I look more muscular.
And right now I'm 184 because I know I just did a cut for going
to Florida. I'm going to maintain this since
Memorial Day and on right. And I just look stronger,
leaner, better with my shirt up, better naked when I have lower
body fat. And and I think guys got to
hover around 12 to 14% if you're not like a stage competitor.
Yeah, I would even say a little bit lower, like if like 1112% to
get that like lean I work outlook.
And unfortunately or not, I would say this, I'm just pulling
statistics out of my you know what?
But most people who work out regularly and just focus on the
strength training and don't do enough cardio and they don't pay
attention to the diet are probably like 18, nineteen, 20%.
And then and that's why you could put on your little fitted
shirt and you can have some muscles popping out of your
sleeves, but you know, deep down you pop that shirt up and you
don't look like you work out anymore, right?
And, and unfortunately, and this just sucks.
This is the shit we got to deal with.
The hardest part is not showing up to the gym for 60 minutes
five times a week and working hard.
The hard part is 24/7 365 die on Indian nutrition and hitting
those annoying ass cardio sessions and like it or not,
anyone it's the nutrition in the cardio is going to that's what's
going to make Ryan here start to kind of lean out and look like
he trains. So just to throw some practical
steps on it. If this guy Ryan, if he's not
doing cardio, you got to and if you are look at the intensity
and a good little rule of thumb I always like to throw out.
If you're looking at cardio pie graph 80% of your time, your
investment in cardio and I I recommend no less than 90
minutes a week, 80% of your time is got to be in zone 2 steady
state for those benefits for both longevity and ready for
this fat lipidosis I. Think that's a word I.
Think that's a word? Got nothing on you?
So anyway, fat metabolism, right?
And then the other 20%, you got to be doing some high intensity
stuff. You just have to, you have to
get your heart rate up in that zone 455010 minutes a week, 15
minutes a week. So you do that, you dial in your
nutrition. Hey, watch this, watch this
segment. Keep your protein consistent
every single day, right? That's what he's going to need.
So I, I think this is a body fat percentage thing for him.
He did not mention cardio nutrition once in his question.
So Ryan, if you're listening, man, dial that other things in,
come back to us, reach out, and then we'll see how you're doing.
Boom and just to add fuel to your fire here, the
recommendation on adding in hit. If that's something that's
currently not been in market in market.
Sorry, I'm coming off of work and still have my work brain.
Oh geez, I don't if anyone has ever heard me ramble before, I
don't. I had I had arm surgery in
October, November last year. I blew out my bicep.
So my training looked a lot differently for, you know, two
months post. So come end of January, early
February, when I was allowed to get back into the gym, my
training looked differently though.
But I wanted to continue to challenge myself.
And one of the things that I knew I needed to do more of was
cardio. So my cardio routine has
completely revamped itself. My VO2 match is still shit, but
it's up six points from where it was three months ago.
What? Do you got?
What is it? I don't want to no, I'm only,
I'm only at 41, so I got a lot of work to do.
But yeah, so I will say and, and adding in the hit has been, it's
been fun, man. It's been really fun.
Like it's hard as shit and I feel like I'm going to die every
time, but I don't know. I like almost meeting Jesus
multiple times a week and then kind of walking away from it
feeling like I won. I think challenge yourself with
that man. Like we don't have to recreate
the wheel in order to see the results.
I would say add in something new, track it, make it
measurable, and let's revisit. None of this is set and forget
it as we know. So I'll shut up now.
I love it and it sounds like when you started.
Focusing on cardio, you didn't do any like you know baseball
like sprinting type drills where like, hey, let's run the first
base and second base and get your body acclimated the next
the next round of the. Block is going to be base
running. I'm really going to running.
What's that? What's that dude doing?
Over there, he looks really serious.
He's really slow. He's trying hard alone at a
baseball field. At 5:00 PM, just sprinting the
bases. Look at it now, Dad.
Go ahead, do that. Next one, Question 4, this one
moving into the world of supplements.
So Chris B crispy crispy from crispy here from Minneapolis, MN
says and I quote everyone's taking magnesium, vitamin D,
Omega threes and creatine that that's pretty good stack for me.
I'm drowning in pills. So don't be dramatic.
If if you could only take 3 supplements for the rest of your
life, what would they be? I, I He answered this.
Question already pretty close so.
Yeah. Chris B for many, you're not
wrong man. And I think there's a reason
behind it too. Like if you are somebody who
hates supplements, then I challenge yourself, get your RDA
or these these supplements, vitamins and minerals from your
food sources if you can, which agreed, I don't know anybody
who's able to do that, but if you are, kudos to you.
Supplements have exist for a reason, man.
Obviously, we shouldn't just be taking any and all supplements
because we saw an ad for it on Instagram.
But when you're talking about the most clinically studied,
well, creatine being the most clinically studied supplement,
everyone's taking that for a reason.
Magnesium, nothing but benefits from cognitive to physical to
digestion. People are taking it for a
reason. Vitamin D, testosterone, I
literally can stop there. But it goes a lot deeper than
that for vitamin D. And then same for, you know,
Omega threes. You've heard Jess and I talked
many times about fish oils being a staple in every single person
supplement cabinet. So I think my answer here is
going to be a little bit 2 fold. One, yes, there are supplements
that IA 100% think you should take.
If I was going to list 3, three out of them are right here.
We got creatine, we got omegas and we have magnesium slash
vitamin DI will use magnesium in my argument here and say
magnesium, Omega threes and creatine would be the three that
I would recommend. I agree.
I think he's. I think he's.
There, I think he's there. So agreed with with you there.
Just creatine monohydrate. It's the most studied supplement
in the world. The benefits are beyond just
physical. There's nootropics, there's
mental benefits. It's super cost effective.
Anyone listening, don't buy don't buy shit that creatine
plus like creatine with all this other nonsense, you don't need
the bells and whistles. Creatine 100%.
I've taken it straight. I never cycle it.
I've never stopped. I'm just going to keep taking
creatine. So creatine's one Omega threes.
I'm with you. You can get, you can get the EPA
DHA benefit from from food. But look, I'm not I'm not eating
salmon and grouper every single day.
Sardines all day. Yeah, well, it's.
Not practical. And then you.
Know unless you're like really paying attention to where you
source your fish from and and paying more for it.
You could catch some of the downsides of eating too much
fish, like some of the some of the metals and things like that
Mercury, but I'll shut up Omega threes.
I'm with you on that. Here's what here's where we
diverge while I also if this said, if he said, give me your
top five. Magnesium and vitamin D are in
there, but because of because of my life and how busy it is.
Protein as a supplement in the form of both whey protein powder
and protein bars. If you can get a pure bar that's
healthy, it doesn't have junk in it and that's just for hitting
my daily protein goals. It's really hard for me to get
200 grams of protein from food that I cook.
It's just a pain in the ass. So my third one would be
protein. I think with vitamin D hands
down, man, like so beneficial, but depending on where you live,
like if you're in the Pacific Northwest, it's harder for you
to get the sunlight that you need, but you probably can get a
healthy copious amounts of vitamin D just from the sun
actually for your body to react and create its own.
So I would look there and the magnesium piece, I wish this was
a Mount Rushmore question, but it's three but two magnesium.
My wife is the one that turned me on to this.
We both take magnesium every night before bed and the quality
of our sleep has skyrocketed through the roof.
And then I just feel better every day.
But in summary, creatine, Omega threes and protein would be my
with my three. But this dude's close.
Good job crispy. All right guys, real quick on
this episode, 1 of the listeners asked about my top three
supplements and I mentioned protein.
Protein is my #1 supplement. It is my go to.
I'm a busy guy. I have fitness goals.
I have to eat real good quality food and I have to hit my
protein goals, which is why I use purest protein products.
They have their whey protein powders which are amazing, but
they just launched their brand new high protein bars and guys,
these are the best protein bars I have ever had.
Not only are they absolutely delicious, but there's nothing
but clean quality ingredients, no junk, no artificial
ingredients, and I can feel good about what I'm putting in my
body and not just my body. These bars are so good and so
pure that I actually give them to my kids and my kids love them
too. They are incredible and I can't
recommend them anymore. If you are constantly on the go
and trying to get your protein goals, you have to try Purest
High Protein Bars. So you can go to
purestnutrition.com. Again, that's Purest
nutrition.com. Follow the link in this episode
description, click through and you can get your protein bars at
a great value. So again, that's Purest
nutrition.com. You won't regret it.
All right, we mentioned mindfulness earlier.
Question 5 here has to do with meditation and breath work.
So Jason P out of Charlotte, NC says quote, I know I should
meditate or do breath work or whatever, but every time I sit
down to try, my plane just screams at me about my To Do
List who can't relate? Is this something you actually
do or just something you say you should do?
He's asking us directly sort of pseudo call out here, a little
bit of a call out which we need every now.
And then I appreciate it. Yeah.
P Justin Do. Do you meditate or do breath
work? I do.
I do so. Breath work and meditation is
one of those things that I've learned I've noticed more when
I'm not doing it, like if I fall out of it for, you know,
schedule, work, whatever. And like I don't, it's not at
forefront of my mind. That's when I notice I'm more
dysregulated or I am unable to, you know, react the way that I
want to a high pressure situation or whatever it may be.
So could I be better at 100%? But I am proud of myself for how
consistent that I have been with the meditation and the breath
work just because of the benefits.
So you see your point about I feel like I'm talking to myself
with this and being like my brain just won't shut the fuck
up every time I try and meditate.
And like that's the point brother.
That's it right there, man. The goal of meditating is to
turn that off, is to be able to work with yourself and what's
within you, to learn how to quiet the noise, be present, be
still, and be thankful. That part, that last part, I
think is very important and meditation, that is often the
overlooked. Meditating is a lot more than
just sitting in quiet and thinking you're doing something
good for yourself. You need to dig deeper.
You need to talk with yourself. You need to be present and stop.
Don't have an agenda. That would be my biggest thing.
Don't go into it thinking I'm going to talk to me myself about
this. I'm going to work through this
problem. Like that's not meditating.
That is forcing something that is not going to fit in the box
you're trying to put it in. And then you're going to get
pissed off, which it sounds like Jason is, and you're going to
say it's not working. IA 100%.
He does sound mad. He does sound.
Mad and I feel like I'm getting mad because I.
Know exactly how he feels right now, right?
No, like dude challengers about 10 minutes bro.
That's it. 10 minutes work up to it.
First couple sessions. I would literally don't go into
it thinking you need to think about anything.
Think about nothing. As noise starts coming in and
you start hearing that To Do List calm, all you're going to
focus on is your breathing. You got to learn how to breathe,
man. That focusing on your breath
work. Everything comes back to the
breath. That is the only thing that you
can control, and that is the only thing you need to control.
And I would just challenge you, man. 10 seconds in, 12 seconds
out. Like as much as you can.
Maybe not 1010's, a little expensive. 10 seconds, That's a
long time. 42nd inhale a. 182nd exhale now long inhale, but
longer exhale. I'd focus on the longer exhale
and just be present and be still.
And I would love to get Adm from you in about a week or two,
Jason, and see one if this was helpful too.
If you've done it in three, how you're feeling since you started
changing some things. But with meditation, more is
less. Do not think you need to be a
Buddhist monk in order to be able to have an effective
meditation session. It's a lot.
It's a lot more of just being still and quiet, and you'll be
surprised what happens. Yeah, you mentioned 10 minutes.
And I don't know if you're you're overachiever, good boy.
You're reading my episode notes that I sent you before today
because there's notes for today. Yeah.
Yeah, there's notes in there. All right, so here's here's you
mentioned 10. I guess you didn't.
A 2020 Harvard study found that even 10 minutes of daily
meditation reduced activity in the amygdala, which is your
stress center, by 22%. After 8 weeks, we all feel
stressed. And there's this thing that you
can do 10 minutes a day and it feels like counterintuitive to
do it because you're still. And normally when you're you're
stressed, you're stressed because you're so damn active,
whether that's physically or your mind jumping from thing to
thing and scrolling and multitasking.
And it feels counterintuitive and counterproductive, frankly,
to sit there and stillness for 10 minutes to breathe.
But that is the very thing that can help us become less
stressed. And that's a fact.
Now to his question, do I do it? No.
And I wish, dude, this is on my list.
Like I always have these growths, like plans and ideas
and goals. Like what can I do more of and
what, what should I do less of? Right.
Like, yeah, more sleep, less alcohol, more meditation, less
social media. There's normally things on like
the opposite ends. Meditation is my goal, just like
him, although I'm less angry about it.
I, I really wish I can do it more and it's just hard for me
to kind of get to, but I'm getting there.
And this is just my experience so I don't care if anyone agrees
with this or not. But like I'm moving towards a
meditation and mindfulness practice.
I do try to do it. I do it when I cold plunge.
I do it other times. But something that I found that
has like a therapeutic benefit to me is reading more because I
think about meditation and mindfulness, what you're doing
is you're slowing down your brain and hopefully focusing on
one thing or nothing. And I found that if I read more,
even if it's 15 minutes a day, it really does help to like
focus me. And I feel much more centered
when I do that. And then another thing that I've
started to do as I downloaded this, this app, and I don't
really care if I say it, I have nothing to do with this company,
but they're called Com app. I'm sure there's other ones like
it. But what they have is they have
these playlists of music that I'll listen to while I'm
working. And I don't quite know the
science, but it's based in what's called EMDR. And they'll
create these songs. And then I don't even know if I
call them songs, but they, they feel like it's like musical in
nature. But the way that they, they, the
audio engineers make it is like these sounds go back and forth
through your ears. And I found you the way.
If I'm just working, it doesn't take me normally.
If I have music on, I can't focus because I hear words and
beats and choruses and bridges and verses.
But if I have this stuff on, I'm working it.
I just feel calm and scared. So I'm starting to do things
that have like a similar adjacent benefit to mindfulness.
But my goal is to get to a place where I feel comfortable enough
and I have the space enough to just sit for 10 minutes and just
kind of like figure out a mindfulness practice.
And there's different ways to do it.
I've heard of like box breathing.
It's not quite, not quite 30 seconds on the way in like you
said, but it's like rookies, 4, four seconds in, hold for four.
Yeah, 4 seconds out, hold for four.
Think about like a box going around.
But anyway, Dietrap, I don't do it.
I would love to do it. I'm going to try to do it more
this year and hopefully I get some of these benefits like
stress reduction because it sounds amazing.
A lot of science behind EMDR. When I was in a treatment, that
was a big focus, and I met with a lot of therapists and
specialists that specialized in that.
And there was a lot of the bilateral audio stimulation and
everything and a lot of behind it, which was cool.
So everything you're saying, I'm like, huh, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. And apparently they're taking.
Those same practices that you currently see in like a
therapeutic setting and they're making music based on those same
benefits. So you don't even have to go to
a therapist. I'm sure it's much more potent
to go to a therapist, but there's playlists out there that
people can like download for free and just like listen to the
back man. Check it out.
Keep your cortisol. Kind of suppressed throughout
the day. Let's keep moving.
We're heading to Texas here. Mr. Brad M from Austin, TX has a
question about parenting. Love these questions, he says,
asks how honest should I be with my kids about my past mistakes,
drinking too much, bad relationships, whatever.
I want them to learn from my experience but not lose respect
for me. Good question what do you think,
man? Yeah, this one hits.
It's our. Own bro, this is one that I, you
know, I struggled with for a long time with my my story and
my journey and you know where I'm at now versus where I was
almost seven years ago now my 2 girls are nine and seven and I
unexpectedly had the conversation with my oldest
about a year ago and. Drinking, I say unexpectedly.
Because I took my oldest daughter to the movies with her
friend and her friend's dad to see a movie called Unbreakable
Boy. I'm not sure if anyone saw it.
It is a good movie, but it was one that I wish there were some
trigger warnings beforehand because in the previews, if you
go on and look at the trailer of this movie, there's not much
about drinking at all in this whatsoever.
You know, we're at the movie, we're watching it.
First couple minutes, you know, Dad's drinking and hiding it.
And I'm like, OK, maybe that's just like the one scene.
Then like maybe that's it. And then Dad crashes the car
with the kids in the car because Dad's drunk.
Next scene, mom's dumping out bottles that she found in the
kitchen sink and the kids are sitting right there watching it
happen. Next scene, daddy goes to rehab.
Next scene, kids are visiting daddy at rehab.
Next thing he's in an A, a meeting.
They're reciting the serenity prayer.
So like as things are happening, my oldest is one of the most
emotionally intelligent human beings that I've ever met in my
life. She knows what's going on.
And like she knew from the time that daddy before we even saw
the movie, she knew Daddy doesn't drink.
Daddy, you will never see daddy with a drink in his hand.
And it was because like, I'm it's just not something for
daddy. Like daddy tried drinking a
while ago, but like my body doesn't like it.
So over the years and like conversations that she's heard
of and everything, like she's starting to put two and two
together of like, OK, so that he used to drink, but now he does
it, but mommy still does. But so like, things are
happening anyway, as we're watching this movie, I see her
starting to look over at me and I'm getting physically upset now
because I am literally reliving every single thing that I did.
And now I'm doing it sitting next to my oldest daughter.
So, you know, she's looking at me and like, I'm looking at her.
I'm like, it's, it's, it's OK. And then we got to the part
where they're at the a, a meeting and they recite the
Serenity prayer. And at this point, she's kind of
like daddy's upset. Now.
Why is Daddy upset? So she looks at me, she grabs my
hand, and then I start reciting the Serenity Prayer as they're
saying in the movie to show her like, this is this is something
Daddy knows. And she looks at me and then
like just hugged me. And then, you know, after the
movie, we left and I was like, well, what the hell, man?
I wasn't ready for that. Like I thought, this is going to
be a fun little date night out and now I got to have
conversations I am not prepped for.
That took a turn. So we get home.
And you know, we're getting, we're getting ready for bed and
everything. And I was like, all right, baby
laid on me. I was like, I, I know you got
questions and I, I, I want to talk to you like you stall.
Like they show some shit, man. And there's a PG movie.
So I'm like, what's going on? So we're laying in bed.
And we're talking and. Monster.
To sum all this up and not a 45 minute rant, you know, it's sort
of like with Daddy. You know, Daddy used to drink,
Daddy drank too much and Daddy turned alcohol into something
that I thought was helpful for me that ended up hurting me and
a lot of people close to me. And you know, Daddy made a
decision seven years ago that he will not ever drink again.
And that's something that Daddy needs to, you know, remind
himself daily as I'm telling her this, I'm trying to like, not
fuck this kid up to the point where she's like, oh, I can
never look at alcohol. It's so bad.
Like, I don't want her to view alcohol as if he sees somebody
else in the family drinking it that they have a problem or
like, it's they're a horrible person.
If you're drinking, like you shouldn't drink it.
And then like, got to the point where as weeks went by after we
had our conversation and like, I'm gonna go in all the details.
But she knows when Daddy went to rehab because for years it was
told her that Daddy was away for a work trip because she was five
years old at the time, four years old at the time.
So she literally as we're talking, I tell her I was like,
dude, what questions do you have for Daddy?
She remembered the video that we have of me walking up my in laws
driveway the day that I got out and I'm hugging them open arms.
And she said, Daddy, you weren't away for work, were you?
Oh boy. And I.
Said you know what, baby? Daddy wasn't away for work.
Daddy went away for 30 days in order to come back the best
version of himself that he could be for you, your sister and your
mommy. And then she hugged me and said
she would never ever even questioned me as a dad and I, it
made my relationship with her a lot better and a lot stronger.
And it was something that I thought would do the opposite
back in the day. So I might have a different
answer to this question than than others.
I don't think 9 and seven-year olds need to hear all the war
stories. They do not need to know the
details. They don't need to know the
arrests. They don't need to know who got
hurt. They don't need to know
specifics. But my actions every day from 7
years ago, daily to this day will speak louder than any story
that I could tell them. Do your fat?
Do your kids deserve to know your past?
Your kids deserve to know what got you as a father to where you
are today. The good, the bad, the ugly.
Do they need to know the details?
No, but they need to understand that they don't have to make the
same mistakes that you made and that there's another way out and
that there's another side to this shit, man, that not, not
many people get to see. It's never over.
But this is a family disease. It's a family disease, man, and
we can't act like it's not. Yeah, I think a key.
Question here is now that that movie was the catalyst for you
to share some things sooner than you would have, is she better
off for knowing what she. Knows now.
That's kind of the crux of the question.
It's like, will, will that awareness give her permission to
make similar mistakes in that, well, I love my daddy, I look up
to him and if he's capable of making those decisions, then I
am as well. And when I do, it's I'm going to
be understandable by my parents. Or will she process all of that
and be inspired to avoid those mistakes?
I think that's the crux of this question, don't you think?
No, I agree. I do.
And obviously I want to sit here and say I'd like to think it's
going to point her in the direction to avoid it.
I will tell. But that's why this isn't a set
it and forget it type of conversation.
And I think it's one that, you know, my my oldest daughter and
I ended up getting baptized together shortly after we saw
this movie. And like my story was a big part
of that, my testimony. I think she knows that there's a
path that she doesn't have to go down, and I think we're
equipping our kids today with the tools that they need and the
confidence that they have in themselves in order to not make
the same mistakes. I know they're not going to be
perfect. I know they're going to fuck up
and make mistakes too, but they don't have to view themselves as
the devil like I viewed me and hate themselves in order to feel
like they had to feel something, you know what I mean?
I do. Yeah, I do.
So, so for me, I'm, I'm going to answer this through the lens of
my relationship with my father. And the question I just asked
stems from that relationship. Justin, you know my, my father's
story, but people that might not, but you know, super.
He lived a colorful life, right? That you can write a book about
this guy and he'd be every single chapter.
You'd be like, holy crap, this guy's essentially crazy Mad Men.
You know, not in like a, you know, psychotic way, but you
know, in his lifestyle growing up in the essentially like the
70s, partying, fighting, blue collar, raised in poverty,
joined the Marine Corps all the way through it.
His lifestyle was ultimately what led to his demise, as you
know, Justin, but he did it. He did acquire AIDS from some of
his recreational drug use. And he raised me, right.
That's my dad. And I think because my dad was
living day in and day out, aware of his own mortality, meaning he
knew at the time, if you had AIDS, when he had it, that it
was a death sentence. It wasn't a matter if you'll
die, it's when. And I think because of his
grappling with his mortality, when he spent time with his
sons, me and my brother, it almost felt like he was trying
to, like, verbalize every single detail of his life to get his
legacy out in the open. And he only did it with his
sons, unfortunately. Now in hindsight, as a 41 year
old father myself with young kids, I think my dad made some
egregious errors in his judgement in sharing the details
of his lives with his kids that he did because he did it.
And he shared every single gratuitous detail.
He did it in such a way that almost glorified it.
Because I understand in hindsight that he probably had a
reason to share a lesson or a story.
And at the end of every story, there was a lesson and he would
wrap it up with like, and don't do what I did, but he would get
so caught up in the middle of the story that he would make it
almost found fun and exciting. Like he would tell a story about
like parties, fights and all these wild experiences.
And he would he would almost literally give off this energy
of like he was nostalgic and, and what what he wound up doing
unintentionally as a father by sharing all those details was
the first part of the how I posed that question to you.
It felt as though I have permission to get away with
anything I wanted to, right. Like, how can he come to me and
say, hey, Jesse, here's what's going to happen.
You're getting into high school and someone's going to come to
you and they're you're going to say, hey, go do this thing.
And that's going to turn into this next thing.
And then you're going to be at a party and these are the
environments you'll be in. Make sure you say no to those
things. But in the back of my mind, I'm
like, you didn't kind of want to say yes, yeah.
Yeah. So that's.
A that's a rough way to kind of land on my, my answer this
question, which is I think you have to be incredibly careful
and thoughtful in the details that you share, because there's
a fine line for creating this parental relationship where like
you're giving them permission to make mistakes that could be
harmful. So I think you have to give like
context, stay in the Gray, like try to like share information.
But like my, what I've decided as a parent in reaction, what my
father did that led to some of my mistakes in my youth is I am
going to avoid telling stories unless it's absolutely
necessary. It just happened today and it
happens quick. You know, this Justin, it pops
up so fast. I don't know where.
I don't know where we went to get it's it's Friday, the kids
are out of school early morning. I said, hey, let's do a daddy
daughter date. Let's go get bagels.
I'm driving and and it's amazing how like a simple question can
turn into like this decision that I have to make as a parent.
She goes, daddy, have you ever been in a car accident?
And I said, 3 her next question, was it your fault?
And she literally already dragged me into this scenario
where I'm picturing a car accident that I was in when I
ran a stop sign as a 17 year old and flipped my truck and rolled
into someone's yard. It was a terrible car accident.
And the reason that happened is because let's just say I wasn't
following the rules that I was supposed to be following, right?
So right away she goes, I said, yeah, one of them is my fault.
She goes, what happened? I'm not.
Going to tell her. That, you know, I, I ran a stop
sign because I was out at a party.
Like, I'm just not going to do that, right.
So that's just a little color to it.
But as you said, man, as your kids get older, especially if
they're emotionally intelligent and attuned and, and self aware,
they're going to start asking these questions.
They're coming. And I think conversations like
this help you be thoughtful. And my, my position is, I mean,
she, she, my kids aren't going to know anything about basically
my life from 14 to 19 years old. They don't have to know any of
that stuff. And we we can talk about it when
they're 35 years old, when I'm retired somewhere.
And then I'll be like, all right, gigs up.
Let me tell you about that strapping.
Kids, listen to this. Shit, exactly.
Exactly. All right, guys, when it comes
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So last question here, this one, we're heading to Richmond, VA
Kevin D asks or says, I've been sober for 18 months.
God bless you, Kevin. Shout out.
It's been great for my health, but I've lost most of my social
circle because everything revolved around drinking.
How do you rebuild friendships as an adult when you're the guy
who doesn't drink? And Justin, I will give you the
floor because I am not sober. I've never been sober for 18
months, so let's let's give the floor to you.
So yeah, man, what do you do? How does that happen?
Kevin, you're asking a great question.
Man, and this is something that I feel like everybody who takes
their sobriety seriously in the beginning faces.
And this is a turning point for a lot of people.
One that forced me to not force me, but one that was a factor in
one of my relapses after getting out was that I was too afraid to
be viewed as the guy who doesn't drink.
Or what's everyone going to think of me now when I have a
water bottle in my hand instead of a beer?
The first and foremost, Kev, the I'm, I refer, I only let me
preface this. I don't have all the answers by
any means. I know what works for me and
what has worked for me and what hasn't.
So that's what I'm going to speak to anybody who was with
you prior to you being sober and is no longer with you 18 months
post being sober. They're not your friends so you
can get them the fuck out of your life because those are the
type of people who are going to bring you back to where you're
trying to get away from. Take it from somebody who's
learned the hard way multiple times, you don't have to do
that. I understand how hard it is to
move away from what you knew in terms of people and friends and
the connections to where you're going now.
But there's a reason they say an early recovery man.
The three things to stay away from people, places, and things.
The three things that you were surrounded by throughout your
active use. Is not going to do anything but
bring you back there. Now are there caveats are there?
I don't know. I wouldn't say exceptions, but
it's going to be hard to get away from some of these people.
One, if they're family 2, if you work with these people, 3.
Whatever the scenario may be, but I will stand firm on top of
a mountain and scream it that if anybody is no longer with you
because you're not using or drinking, that is somebody that
does not need to be in your life.
It's scary to think about, bro. I'm not going to sit here and
act like it isn't. It's a question that needs to be
asked that all of us think in the beginning.
And like, again, you're at a turning point, bro.
And I think rather than going back to what you've known in the
past, because it's comfortable in terms of the people that you
surrounded yourself with, as you know, the last 18 months being
uncomfortable has gotten you this far.
Don't expect that to change, brother, because as soon as you
go back to being that comfy cozy Kevin, you're going to be using
again. Now there are so many avenues to
like, OK, tactically answer the question like, all right, well,
cool. You're saying a lot of shit.
How do I make friends like this? Or how do I meet people that are
sober minded and like want to do this?
I don't know if you are involved in church at all.
I'm always going to go to church first.
Sorry. Spoiler alert, get involved and
plugged into a men's group, whether it's at church, whether
it is a sobriety group, whether it is just a group of friends
that you have that you know are like minded that you want to get
together with every week. Sit down for an hour.
You don't have to have an agenda, but you know those
people are going to support you and have the same, you know, not
policies and procedures as you, but they're hooked up the same
mentally and they view the same things as important as you do.
Friendships are as adults, as we get older, a lot of times
they're situational. So I understand that you're
going to be put in certain scenarios where you may be with
these people or may not be with these people.
But the best thing that you can do and the best thing that I
have done is act like not a God damn thing has changed.
Nothing has changed besides what's in my hand and if that is
the reason for somebody to treat me differently.
Yeah, that's it. So long.
Yep. So long.
What do you think was harder in the 1st 18 months for you?
Was it just in general having fun and finding different ways
to have fun without alcohol? Or was it like the people factor
like hanging out with people the same way used to?
We're both. I think I struggled with a lot.
I feel like a lot of us too in the beginning too.
It's just like, I feel like everyone's going to view me as
the alcoholic, like everyone, oh, here he comes.
Like I can't say this word in front of everyone else.
He's going to go Chuck vodka. But it's like, no, no, that's
not the fucking case, dude. Like it's all in our heads.
Like we do this to ourselves. We have, I'm talking to you,
buddy. We do this to ourselves.
We think that we are the outlier and that we're the outcast and
that everyone's noticing. I have a non alcoholic Sierra
Nevada in my hand than an alcoholic Sierra Nevada.
And it's like the truth to that is the only people who noticed
whether or not you're drinking, guess what?
They're Alcoholics too, buddy. So don't worry, it's just 99% of
people are normal and they're not going to notice and nor are
they going to care. But we have it so made out in
our minds that that's our identity, that that's all we
know as it has to be a part of us.
So give yourself some grace and go into this with an open mind
and a willingness to not, you know, deter from what you know
is your goal and what you know is important to you and watch
God happen. Just watch it happen, bro.
Yeah, if anything, maybe like the.
Decision to get sober and and not drink and be a litmus toss
to pull up and evaluate your friends.
And if you find out anything that you know those friendships
aren't as strong as you were. If you didn't have alcohol and
socializing and bars and breweries as the anchor, then
you probably didn't have the right friends.
I mean, that's Simply put it right now, and that's an
epiphany. That I feel like is important to
have. And Kevin, I'm glad you're
having it now and then. I don't know if you have dabbled
in the step work at all or have a sponsor, but in regards to
rebuilding and understanding the why behind a lot of this stuff
and what we can do moving forward from where we're at now
and where you're at now, this that work.
I'm going to sing it from the mountain top still.
It's hard and it's scary, but it's not as scary as not being
sober. Yeah.
And earlier on you said I don't. Know if you go to church, of
course, you're, you're addressing the person asking the
question. If, if let's just say Kevin
doesn't go to church and maybe he's even against who for some
reason. I think Justin, what you're
touching on there is like a community can have for some
people. You're seeing more and more
trends around people getting plugged into like Saturday
morning fitness classes, run clubs, things like that.
But to your point, I think on the deepest level, like
accountability with the right people can be extremely
powerful. I mean, I've done 306090 day,
you know, alcohol free, you know, whatever, like challenges,
stuff like that. So again, I can't speak to it as
much, but I think no better guy to ask Mr. Justin Mazar's here.
So great answer, dude. Once again, listeners, awesome
questions. We're going to keep him coming.
Justin jumps back on the show every single month.
I hope he'll keep saying yes to coming on because I really enjoy
unpacking these awesome questions.
So Justin, dude, thank you so much.
I know it's Friday. You got some kids outside trying
to get you on a bike ride. Thanks.
Thanks for being here, brother. I really appreciate you and
thank you as always. Justin, looking forward to the
next one, man. Cool.
We'll see you next time everybody.
All right folks, that's it for our.
Episode this week listeners great job these questions that
you guys keep sending us are absolutely amazing and we're so
grateful that you do so every single month.
We appreciate so much the questions that we get whether
it's on social media in our inbox, etcetera.
Just great stuff. I just love the fact that it
touches on the things that the show is all about.
You got fitness questions, you got nutrition you got
supplements you got parenting, you got lifestyle you got
alcohol all the things man and we're we're just so grateful we
really really hope you enjoy these episodes.
We're going to keep coming with them and appreciate and shout
out to Justin Mazars for jumping every time just love tackling
these questions with him. So just as a reminder we always
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